Holiday/Christmas 2012 gift ideas for guitarists

Choices from gadgets, pedals, interfaces and more....

Motörheadphones (From £79.99)

For the high fidelity rocker

Whether you like it or not (and man, we love it), Christmas is coming. It might be a bit early to buy the turkey, but it's never to soon to start weighing up your present options, especially if you're buying for a guitarist - we can be a tough crowd to please.

So in the spirit of happy smiling faces all round come Christmas morning, here's our guide to the very best stocking fillers out there for the six-string slinger who has it all...

Motörhead aren't a band renowned for their subtlety, and with their recently released Motörheadphones, they've taken their brand of no nonsense, louder-than-war rock and roll and applied it to the fine art of headphones.

Motörheadphones are designed with the sophisticated rocker in mind, and boast crisp mids and high frequencies, rugged build and a one metre smartphone-ready cable.

Fender Greta Amp (£202.80)

All-tube tabletop tones

Do amps come much sweeter than this? Not really, no - the Fender Greta is part of the Pawn Shop range, and while it might look like a painfully cute retro radio, it is in fact a a tube-driven amplifier of distinction.

Featuring a 4" Special Design speaker, a 12AT7 output tube and a 12AX7 preamp tube, 1/4" input and outputs, plus a 1/8" aux input, it can be used for handy tabletop rocking, or as an amplifier for your iPod (or other music player of choice, naturally).

The Book Of Orange (£29.99)

Two hundred pages of amp heritage

It might sound like an obscure, citrus-themed lost book of the Bible, but The Book Of Orange is in fact the only coffee table book Orange acolytes will ever need.

Detailing the history of the venerable Brit amplifier manufacturer from its beginnings in the '60s through to its modern day incarnation across 200 full-colour pages, it's packed to the gills with factoids about the amps and the people that built them.

If you fancy celebrating over 40 years of Orange amplification this Christmas, you can pick up the book from the good people at Orange, or from Amazon.

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Rotosound Guitar and Bass String Cleaner (from £12.95)

Keep it clean...

Any guitarist knows that strings can quickly become dirty and lifeless from being coated in all manner of funky finger-muck.

Which is where the Rotosound Guitar String Cleaner comes in, a handy tool that freshens up both your string and your fretboard without the need for cleaning chemicals. Rotosound reckons that regular use can make your strings last up to four times longer, so it could prove a money saver too.

Tascam iu2 (£149)

Plug in, baby

Is the guitarist in your household constantly bemoaning the lack of simple, all-in-one iOS device interfaces? Not sure what he's talking about?

Simply bag him on of these handy Tascam interfaces, and the moaning will stop, we promise. That's because with this little shiny black box, they'll be able to connect to iOS devices and computers with no fuss, and it's so simple to use that they won't even have to waste time figuring out how to use it.

Check out our review, and head to Tascam's website for more information.

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Nineboys Wedge (£79)

When six strings is five too many

The diddley bow is a musical contraption that has survived because it's so much damn fun, something that the Nineboys Wedge has in spades.

The antithesis of a high-end guitar, this is a single-string wonder that will provide endless fun for curious guitarists keen on a bit of authentic bluesy slide. It's a strange beast, no doubt about it, but diddley bows like this were the basis of many a blues master's guitar education, and are still used by the likes of Jack White to this day.

Laka By Vintage VUVS6 (from £89.99)

Uke know you want it

Ukeleles might not scream rock and roll, but when they're shaped like this and can be plugged in for maximum four-string volume, it's hard not to want to give it a go.

Nylon strung and featuring a mahogany body with a set mahogany neck, 18 frets, an ebony nut, piexo pickup and volume and tone controls, this is a well appointed uke custom built for maximum rock. Plus, you'll be hearing gently strummed Christmas songs before the Queen's speech, which is obviously a bonus.

Vox amPhones (from £99)

An amp/headphone hybrid? You're spoiling us, Vox

Practicing at home can be a dangerous obsession for some guitarists, where the amplified tones of the common or garden electric guitar can be enough to break up marriages, anger parents and send neighbours into fits of apoplectic rage.

Thankfully, the good people at Vox - who know a thing or two about amps - are all too aware of this, and have invented the amPhones, a set of headphones that have a built in amplifier, meaning they can be plugged straight into a guitar for near-silent practice. Available versions include AC30, Twin, Lead and Bass.

Learn Guitar Now

You've been putting it off for long enough: it's time to Learn Guitar Now, using our new series of apps which give you all the tuition and guidance you need to bring out the bluesman in you.

The first two editions of our new series, Modern Blues and Classic Blues, are both available from the App Store, and are packed full of tips to improve your playing, lessons on how to play in the style of greats like Jeff Beck, John Mayer and Joe Bonamassa, and loads more besides.

"Play Guitar Now is the ultimate way to learn blues guitar. Everything's in one place - the tab, the audio and the video - so all you need is to grab your guitar, press play and off you go," says Guitar Techniques editor Neville Martin. "The lessons are beautifully presented by top tutors from Guitar Techniques magazine, so you know you're in the safest hands! It does exactly what it says on the tin - Play Guitar Now!"